I jumped into the deep end and got my hair wet. Life has never been the same.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

A broad brush...

Having followed, albeit distantly, the Ruby Dhalla situation wherein she stands accused of mis-treating nannies who have been brought here from another country, I find that it is really a peripheral issue that has the hair on the back of my neck standing at attention.

CTV's Canada AM ran a 'viewer poll' and were displaying comments about whether people tend to believe the nannies, or Ms. Dhalla. The comments on both sides astounded me. People who favoured the nannies made comments such as "all politicians are liars" or "why would you believe anything a politician says?" and people who favoured Ms. Dhalla made comments about the nannies which were almost racial in nature and are not worthy of repeating here.

At the risk of being guilty of exactly what has raised my ire, I have come to the conclusion that those who are quick to paint an entire group of people with one large unforgiving brush stroke are doing nothing more that shamelessly parading their own ignorance and personal bias.

To those who made comments about the lack of integrity of ALL politicians, I would love to be able to ask: did you vote? Have you ever voted? Don't you care enough to become involved? Do you realize that you actually have the power to make a difference and hold our elected representatives accountable?

To those who made comments about the nannies I would love to find out if they are secret members of the KKK.

As for what I personally believe about this situation: I have faith that the system we have in place whereby Ms. Dhalla has the opportunity to face her accusers will work. There is more to this than meets the eye, and daylight will prohibit the liars from hiding forever. The truth will eventually prevail. It always does.